Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/221

 and American editions appeared in 1824, 1841, and 1850. J. E. Bright's ‘Treatise on the Law of Husband and Wife’ (1849) was largely founded on it.



ROPER, SAMUEL (d. 1658), antiquary, was eldest son of Thomas Roper of Heanor, Derbyshire, by his second wife, Anne, daughter and coheir of Alvered Gresbrooke of Middleton, Warwickshire. About 1615 Dugdale made the acquaintance of Roper, and afterwards became connected with him by marriage. Roper, who lived for some time at Monk's-Kirby, Warwickshire, aided Dugdale in his history of the county, making investigations which resulted in the discovery of ‘foundations of old walls and Roman bricks.’ Dugdale, in his ‘Antiquities of Warwickshire,’ mentions him as ‘a gentleman learned and judicious, and singularly well seen in antiquities.’ Roper also had chambers in Lincoln's Inn, and there Dugdale first met, in 1638, [q. v.], his future collaborator in the ‘Monasticon Anglicanum’ (Life of Dugdale, ed. Hamper, p. 10). Roper worked out the genealogy of his own family with great industry, and his pedigree fills several pages in the ‘Visitation of Derbyshire’ of 1654. It is illustrated by numerous extracts from deeds and drawings of seals; but the proofs are usually taken from private muniments, which are seldom corroborated by public records. It satisfied Dugdale, who repeated it in his ‘Visitation of Derbyshire’ of 1662. In the ‘Visitation’ of 1654 Roper is called ‘collonell for the parlament.’ He died on 1 Sept. 1658.

Roper married Elizabeth, daughter and coheir of Sir Henry Goodere of Polesworth, Warwickshire, and had issue two sons and four daughters. The eldest son, Samuel Roper (1633–1678), who inherited his father's antiquarian tastes (cf. Life of Dugdale), died unmarried.



ROPER, WILLIAM (1496–1578) biographer of Sir Thomas More, was eldest son of John Roper, by his wife Jane, daughter of Sir John Fineux, chief justice of the king's bench. The father, who had property both at Eltham in Kent and in St. Dunstan's parish, Canterbury, was sheriff of Kent in 1521, and long held the office of clerk of the pleas or prothonotary of the court of king's bench; he was buried in the Roper vault in the chapel of St. Nicholas in St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, on 7 April 1524. He made his will on 27 Jan. 1523, and it is printed at length in ‘Archæologia Cantiana’ (ii. 153–74). The provisions, which ignored the Kentish custom of gavelkind, were so complicated that an act of parliament, which was passed in 1529, was needed to give effect to them. John Roper's widow Jane wrote to Thomas Cromwell on 16 Nov. 1539 begging him to bestow the post of attorney to Anne of Cleves (about to become queen of England) on John Pilborough, husband of her second daughter, Elizabeth; the letter is in the public record office (cf. Archæologia Cant. iv. 237–8). The elder Roper's youngest son, Christopher (d. 1558–9), of Lynsted Lodge, Kent, was escheator for the county in 1550; he married Elizabeth, daughter of Christopher Blore of Teynham, Kent, and was grandfather of Sir John Roper, who was created Baron Teynham on 9 July 1616; the peerage is still held by a descendant.

William, the eldest son, was, according to Wood, educated at one of the universities. Under his father's will he inherited the larger part of the family property, including estates at Eltham and St. Dunstan's, Canterbury. In 1523, when his father made his will, William held jointly with him the office of clerk of the pleas or prothonotary of the court of king's bench. This post he subsequently held alone for life. His legal duties apparently brought him to the notice of Sir Thomas More, and about 1525 he married More's accomplished eldest daughter, Margaret (for an account of her see art. ). More showed much affection for Roper. After his father-in-law's execution in 1535, Roper compiled a charmingly sympathetic life of More, which is the earliest of More's biographies and the chief source of information respecting More's personal history. It was first published at Paris in 1626 under the title ‘The Life, Arraignement, and Death of that Mirrour of all true Honour and Vertue, Syr Thomas More’ [for bibliography see art. , ad fin.].

Roper was an ardent catholic to the last, and during Queen Mary's reign took a part in public life. He had previously sat for Bramber (1529), Rochester (1545), and Winchester (1553), and he was returned in 1554 to Mary's second and third parliaments as member for Rochester. In Mary's last two parliaments (October 1555 and January 1557–8) he sat for Canterbury. He did not re-enter the House of Commons after Queen Mary's